Friday Betsy had a rare weekend night off, and we declared it date
night. She usually has to drag me to weekend night movies (I hate the
crowds), but I surprised her by taking her to a 5:50 show ("Capote",
excellent!) which wasn't crowded, THEN to dinner. I took her to a
Turkish place with a good rep, and we had a so-so meal (good appetizer
of feta in phyllo, but mediocre renditions of various lamb & grilled
meat, and dull baba ganoush). Wine list had nothing exciting, but I
ordered a 2002 Livio Felluga Merlot (Friuli) as I had liked his whites
before. Dull flabby red, sweet red plum fruit, little distinctiveness.
Some light oak. We left half the bottle. I know 2002 was a rough
vintage in parts of Italy, but never heard there were problems in
Friuli. Vintage, or wine? C/C+

Saturday I went into city with Betsy. I watched "The Mines of Sulphur"
while she played (I'm no huge fan of atonalism, but this was great, as
the dissonance of the music set the mood for the Gothic opera).
Afterwards we walked into Central Park to visit a friend, then went to
her new favorite yakitori place (Yakitori Totto, like being in Tokyo,
highly recommended to anyone in NYC). I just had a Kirin there, then
headed home while Betsy played evening show. When I got home, I felt
like a glass of wine, and opened the 2004 Dr. Thanisch (Erben-Thanisch)
Riesling QbA (MSR). Nicely balanced base-level Riesling, slate and
flowers on the nose, nice canned pear fruit (I'm serious, I actually
think it was good, yet reminded me of the canned pears my mom used to
fill with cottage cheese in my Good Housekeeping © childhood). Not bad
at all, if a little lacking in concentration. Two nights later it's a
little less zippy than my preference, but still decent for the level. B

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent
wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't
drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no
promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of
consistency.